This LTE is but a small drop in the bucket towards addressing the issue of American ignorance.
But I live in a small conservative ski town in the Rockies. If I can open up the thinking of just one of the closed-minded generation-indoctrinated rethugs that populate this county, then I will have done something. Just a drop of something, but something:
One of the first things the Bush administration accomplished when they took office was to implement sweeping tax cuts, mainly for the wealthy.
Their reasoning behind this is "trickle-down" economics - the theory being that this money poured into the upper echelon of the economy would eventually trickle-down to the working class.
We have had 7 years to see if this is working. So, what is the result?
One of the first things the Bush administration accomplished when they took office was to implement sweeping tax cuts, mainly for the wealthy.
Their reasoning behind this is "trickle-down" economics - the theory being that this money poured into the upper echelon of the economy would eventually trickle-down to the working class.
We have had 7 years to see if this is working. So, what is the result?
For the period from 2000-2006, according to the US Census Bureau, the median income for every income group except the highest 20% fell during that period.
That's right. The bottom 20% lost 4.5% of their buying power during that period. The second tier lost 3.1%. The middle tier lost 2.5%. Those in the 4th tier lost 0.7%. These are the worse real income figures ever recorded over such a long period of time in history.
The only Americans who saw any improvement in their economic situation during the period from 2000-06 were the top 20%, who saw their real income increase 1%.
This may not seem like much, but if you consider that top 20% owns 50.5% of the income (the highest percentage since before the Great Depression), then 1% is a windfall.
So, it depends on your perspective. The tax cuts did work - to make the wealthy wealthier, and everyone else (80% of us) poorer.
One of the main complaints your hear from conservatives about the Democratic agenda is that they want to "increase taxes", which isn't really true.
While they do propose small changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax, which hasn't been updated to reflect economic changes and therefore unfairly catches middle-class workers who were not original targets of the tax, the main "increase" they propose is allowing the tax cuts implemented by the Bush Administration to lapse.
It's up to you to decide. Do you want to be taken in by pithy catchphrases designed to keep you in the dark, or will you look at what is truly happening, and take appropriate action?
I'll be lucky if this even gets published. As I've diaried before, letters like mine don't get space in this paper.
So, wish me luck.
Also, if this doesn't make it in, I am going to keep trying. My next attempt will address the way Bush implemented archaic laws to thwart states' attempts to prevent the present mortgage meltdown